Joe Manganiello, left, and Anna Paquin star in HBO’s ‘True Blood.’ A new survey commissioned by Comcast shows more people than ever are watching television through means such as DVRs, on demand and online.

Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting

Joe Manganiello, left, and Anna Paquin star in HBO’s ‘True Blood.’ A new survey commissioned by Comcast shows more people than ever are watching television through means such as DVRs, on demand and online.

NEW YORK - If you've never time-shifted a prime-time television
series - watched it later on a DVR, over the Internet or ordered it
on demand - you're now in the minority.

A survey of viewers conducted on the eve of the new fall season
quantifies what has become commonplace in millions of American
homes: People are putting themselves in charge of their own TV
schedule.

Sixty-two percent of viewers across the country interviewed in a
poll conducted for the nation's largest cable company, Comcast
Corp., said they have used time-shifting technology. Six in 10
people said they owned a digital video recorder.

Among the new majority is Bethany Hardy, 36, of Arlington, Va.,
a writer and mother of a 3-year-old. She said she and her husband
rarely watch live television.

"It's a generational thing," she said. "All of my friends are
pretty much the same way."

Hardy said it's usually between 9 and 10 p.m., after the toddler
has been put to bed and she's cleaned the house a little, that she
has time to think about catching up on "Mad Men," "Curb Your
Enthusiasm," "True Blood" or some of her other favorites.

"If I didn't have the DVR, I don't think TV would be in the
running," she said. "I would probably be doing more surfing on the
Internet or reading books. I just don't have the time to figure out
what shows are on at what time."

It's the same thing in Amarillo, Texas, when Bryan Barcroft gets
his 7-, 5- and 3-year-old children to sleep. He follows "Big
Brother," "NCIS" and other shows on DVR. They tape "America's Got
Talent" and watch each week's two episodes back-to-back with the
kids, zipping through the commercials.

"We could live without it, but we wouldn't be interested in
watching television, and that's our main form of entertainment,"
said Barcroft, a 35-year-old information technology specialist at a
bank.

Diana Kerekes, Comcast's vice president of video services, said
people at the company are struck by how rapidly the new technology
has been adopted. That's evident in both the survey's findings and
Comcast's internal data of how the company's products are used.
"It's huge," she said.

The survey found that 60 percent of viewers report time-shifting
more than they did a year ago. Going back three years, 84 percent
said they are doing it more often - more than half of the people
saying they use it "significantly more."

"The people who are doing this are not young kids who wear black
and live in SoHo," said Alan Wurtzel, chief researcher for NBC
Universal. "They are mainstream."

Consider HBO's experience this season: "Entourage" averages 1.78
million viewers for the live Sunday-night debut of each week's
episode. Another 1.87 million people watch a playback on DVR, 1.66
million order it later in the week on demand, and 2.3 million watch
during other times it is shown on the network.

Four of five people said they'd be watching some programs live
this fall, Comcast's survey reported. But 41 percent said they'd
also be watching some shows on DVR, 17 percent said they'd see some
online and 16 percent said they'd order programming on demand.

The upward trajectory of DVR ownership has been well chronicled,
but fewer people are aware of how quickly on demand viewership is
catching on, Kerekes said. Comcast, which has 23.2 million
customers, gets some 350 million orders of VOD programming per
month, she said. Television shows now surpass movies, music video
and children's programming, she said.

One heartening sign for networks could be that time-shifting
will make many customers apt to try something new. Kim Cooper, an
online support specialist from Charleston, S.C., said that's one
thing on her mind when she sits down on a Sunday and programs each
of her two DVRs for the week.

"If you see something coming up you'll say, 'Do you want to give
it a shot?'" Barcroft said. "We decide in the first five or 10
minutes whether we like it or not."

Most of the networks offer programming for on demand usage,
although frequently not until the day after it appears on TV,
Kerekes said. Comcast offered some 1,700 items for on demand
viewing during an average month in 2004; now it's more than 17,000
per month.

It's a similar story at Time Warner Cable Inc., which averaged
1,400 on demand offerings per month in 2005 and now has more than
12,000 each month. In three years, there's been an 800 percent
increase in use of a Time Warner feature that allows viewers to
start at the beginning of a program no matter what time they tune
in.

Going forward, it will be important for networks to understand
the different experiences for customers watching a show as it's
placed on the TV schedule, online or on demand, she said. HBO
creatively offered "extras" on demand leading up to "The Pacific"
miniseries, including a Tom Hanks interview, and that helped drive
viewers to the show's premiere on the TV network.

Comcast's random survey of 1,000 people - not just Comcast
customers - was conducted online between July 22 and 28 by
International Communications Research. Its margin of error was plus
or minus 3.1 percent.

The networks are finding a lot more people such as Deb Holcomb,
42, of San Francisco, who is using different ways to piece together
her TV experience. She doesn't have cable or satellite, or a DVR,
and gets about 20 stations for free over the air with a digital
signal.

"When I just have to watch something on ESPN, I go to a nearby
bar," she said. "The pizza and beer are still less than a monthly
cable bill. If it's a series on HBO, I rent it at the video store.
If it's not a network show, I might be able to stream it from the
website when it's convenient to watch.

"Those options provide me with as much flexibility as cable and
a DVR for a lot less money," she said. "If none of those options
are available, it probably wasn't good enough to bother watching
anyhow."

Inside time shifting

How the multiple platforms available to viewers has affected
HBO's "Entourage" this season:

1.78 million - Average audience for the live
debut of new episodes Sunday night.